White House Plan To Stop HIV Faces A Tough Road In Oklahoma

[DonViejo]

February 19, 2019 10:58 AM ET
JACKIE FORTIER

One of the goals President Trump announced in his State of the Union address was to stop the spread of HIV in the U.S. within 10 years.

In addition to sending extra money to 48 mainly urban counties, Washington, D.C., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, Trump's plan targets seven states where rural transmission of HIV is especially high.

Health officials and doctors treating patients with HIV in those states say any extra funding would be welcome. But they says that strategies that work in progressive cities like Seattle won't necessarily work in rural areas of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Stigma around HIV and AIDS and around being gay runs deep in parts of Oklahoma, says Dr. Michelle Salvaggio, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Institute at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. The institute is one of two federally funded HIV clinics in Oklahoma; the other is in Tulsa, the second-largest city in the state.

A long drive for anonymity

Salvaggio's clinic has six exam rooms where she sees patients, many of whom drive hours for treatment. The clinic used to employ a case manager in rural Woodward County, a little more than two hours' drive northwest of Oklahoma City.

more
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/19/695687400/white-house-plan-to-stop-hiv-faces-a-tough-road-in-oklahoma?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

[Runningdawg]

1. GOP Okies think the solution to the HIV crisis

is a firing squad. Speaking as a retire nurse - hospitals still refuse to discipline or fire people who refuse to treat patients with HIV/AIDS.
They aren't going to change.
My best advice for anyone needing this specialised care is to use your last dime and energy to get the hell out.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Sad, but expected.